One of the regional directors of Florida’s Department of Children and Families thinks the foster care system it administers doesn’t work very well.

Some depressing statistics about foster care:

Forty-four (44%) percent of foster children will be arrested [compared to fourteen (14%) percent of the general population]

Fifty (50%) percent of foster girls will become mothers during their teens [compared to one-third of the general population]

Florida’s not unique in these respects. And there probably isn’t a whole lot of dispute about the quality of foster care.

But the question remains: how do we improve the foster care program?

The DCF director points out that children of divorce are traumatized by the loss of one parent from their day to day lives. Foster children lose both parents. On top of being abandoned, abused or neglected.

The director would attempt to minimize the trauma by keeping families intact. The director would greatly reduce the number of cases where children are removed from the home.

Instead the director would provide services in the home on an intensive and accelerated basis, with closer supervision afterward.

A small pilot program is underway right now. If successful, a larger pilot project will follow.

In Vienna, Austria, nearly sixty-six (66%) percent of marriages end in divorce.

That statistic may call for some creative strategies to help people through the process.

Thus was born the world’s first “Divorce Fair”.

Vienna’s Divorce Fair was expected to provide a venue for people contemplating divorce to consult with attorneys, mediators and other experts on the divorce process and picking up the pieces after divorce.

The Divorce Fair forum will not require attendees to identify themselves in order to consult with professionals. (This raises certain ethical questions for attorneys under US standards of practice, but we don’t have divorce fairs in the US – at least not yet.)

The Divorce Fair also was anticipated to present information about parenting and experiencing divorce from a child’s perspective.

A Wisconsin assistant district attorney describes her mission of criminally charging non-custodial parents who are seriously delinquent in their child support payments.

She aptly points out something that custodial parents often don’t get: the court can’t force a non-custodial parent to be a good parent. To actually visit their child, call their child, care for their child, do for their child, etc.

But under the right circumstances, there is one thing the court can do. Make sure the non-custodial parent pays their child support obligations. Sooner or later. Or risk jail time.

For those struggling financially through divorce, it may console them to know that millionaires may not be any happier in their marriages – or divorces.

About half of wealthy people describe themselves as unhappy in their marriages, and just as many admit to cheating on their spouses in the last three years. (Interestingly, more women than men owned up to affairs.)

Somewhat ironically, the excuse cited for unfaithfulness was desire for variety.

Although half of the affluent were unhappy in their marriages, just thirty percent were considering divorce…

Primarily because divorce is expensive in more ways than one – and could adversely affect a spouse’s business standing and dealings.

But despite the greater aversion of the well-off to divorce, they do tend to plan ahead and prepare.

More than half of wealthy women take steps to assure a private nest egg to see them through, and about one-third of comfortable men do the same. And the greater the couple’s wealth, the greater the likelihood that one or both spouses had tucked something away for that rainy day.

Surprisingly, relatively few rich people had prenuptial agreements. Only 6% of millionaires and only 11% of multi-millionaires with $10 million or more.

Just as surprisingly, postnuptial agreements (property settlement agreements made during marriage) were slightly more common among millionaires generally, but with the highest concentration among multi-millionaires with $10 million or more.

Because “every attorney has an obligation to fight for a client’s interests” and, under collaborative divorce, an attorney is required to drop out of the case if it can’t be settled. Reaching settlement sometimes requires one party to accept an unfair deal.

Other critics point out that the friendlier-divorce model may facilitate fraud and deception by a spouse, since there is no judge to referee and impose order.

Of course, in the end, it’s really about the priorities of the parties in the case at hand. For some clients, peace and harmony are more important than pursuing everything they are entitled to financially.